Tales of a Double Life
by NotJustAnotherHuman
Summary: Please READ and REVIEW this! It's really a bunch of assorted stories I wrote about Neji and Tenten. By the way, I'm not too proud of my first three stories in here, so read farther than them to see if you like this. [Chapter 2&3 edited]
1. Sleeping

He woke up to the clatter of a plastic tray against the speckled linoleum floor. Slightly annoyed, but without showing anything he raised his head from the pillow to look at the source of the disturbance. Of course it had to be a certain pink-haired medic-nin, who had the most amusing look upon her face. Her eyes were as wide as could be… and probably a little wider. It seemed like all her jaw muscled had gone on strike, because her jawbone hung loosely from its ligaments, slightly askew. The hands, which had previously been holding the tray, now hung limply by her side; the tray in question spilling most of its contents upon the clean floor.

He was about to smirk when he stopped himself. For one, that would be showing emotion, and that's simply something he doesn't do often, or this liberally. The second reason was that he was in a way more precarious position than her, considering the fact that HE had been SLEEPING in PUBLIC. It was unheard of, some people even doubted that he slept at all, and that was no exaggeration.

Then he realized something even more… potentially disastrous; he was not alone on the bed. He had realized that as he fell back onto the lumpy, cheap hospital mattress. The sudden movement or the backlash of the fall had made something move on his chest… something that moved rhythmically. He peered out of the corner of his eye to see what could possibly have been on his chest, but the sight of twin messy buns that looked like they were going to fall apart and a delicate hand rising and falling to his breaths assaulted him before he could figure it out.

'Shit, shit, shit, shit…' he repeated in his mind, sometimes becoming more creative and colorful, but mind you, the authoress has to keep a good rating, and what he came up with is definitely not for kiddies. Of course he kept his neutral façade, the only hint of his internal trauma being the terror flashing through his eyes. Now the medic-nin's look was fully acceptable, and not funny in the least.

Regaining his calm and suddenly realizing that he always had the option of escaping the village and becoming a missing-nin if things got out of hand, she looked back towards the medic.

"You wanted to see her?" he asked, internally cringing at the pure stupidity of the question. Of course she wanted to see her! That's why they were all in a hospital after all. The medic simply nodded, still too shocked to actually formulate a response; it wasn't everyday that you found an icecube sleeping on the same bed as a kunoichi.

Slowly shaking her head, and coming back to Earth from wherever her mind had escaped, the medic-nin exclaimed with a shaky voice, "Don't worry, I can come later!" Of course he ignored her, and proceeded to waken his… teammate? Well, no matter what she was at the moment, he wanted his leg back, and prying her off had lead to no results as of yet.

"Mmm?" the newly awakened member of our story asked, looking at the source of the incessant kicking, shaking and poking… well everything short of screaming.

Yeah, he wanted her up that bad.

Because he had woken her up so suddenly when she had been having a very nice dream, and because she simply wasn't a morning person, she decided that it would be fun to push him off the bed. And so she did, sending our poor little victim flailing over the edge of the stainless steel frame and onto the floor. Then she sat up and stretched her arms in the air, like absolutely nothing had happened.

By now, the Sakura had no idea what was going on, but she might as well so what she had come here to.

"Tenten-chan, may I replace your bandages?" the confused girl asked, still within the vicious jaws of bewilderment.

Tenten simply shrugged and said, "Might as well. You did come here specifically to do that, after all."

"Then, Neji has to leave the room…" the medic said, her voice quivering slightly at the fact that Neji was in the room with a girl… SLEEPING!

"Already taken care of, he ran away the moment I pushed him off." Tenten said matter-of-factly, surprising Sakura, something she no longer thought possible, with her nonchalance. She made it seem like he had never even been in the room.

"Oh" was all Sakura could manage, her brain still not accepting the fact that Neji had been sleeping with Tenten. At least she hadn't walked in on something more… She shuddered at the thought.

"Sakura-chan? Are you okay?" Tenten asked from her seat on the edge of the cheap bed.

"it's just that…" Sakura said, shaking her head in an attempt to think straight. Tenten raised her eyebrow in the traditional 'what are you trying to say?' look. "You're not even fazed about all this!"

"Huh? Well, you are freaking out enough for the both of us… why should I be freaking out too?" Tenten asked, sincerely wondering why. Sure it wasn't a normal sight… but it wasn't the first time she had seen him sleep… or wake her up like that. True those times were all on missions and she was a deep sleeper, but what made this so different?

"Nevermind, please take your shirt off…" said Sakura, forcing Tenten to remove the large blue shirt she had on and reveal a black sports bra and enough bandages to put a mummy to shame. "How did you guys fall asleep like that anyways?" Sakura asked as rebound the kunoichi's shoulder.

"Hehe… about that…" Tenten mumbled, suddenly uncomfortable. "Plus I don't know how he fell asleep, I was asleep first."

"Okay, then why did he run away?" Sakura asked, trying to rid the room of the uncomfortable tension the previous question had created.

"He probably left to hide in a corner so that no one will find him when the entire of Konoha finds out what happened. I think I might need to hide too… I give Gai-sensei about five minutes before he starts praising one of us about our youthfulness… most likely me since I'm stuck in this room."

"What makes you think that?" Sakura asked, amazed at the fact that Neji 'left to hide in a corner.'

"Well the noise your tray made when it fell attracted the nurses and one of them must have seen what happened. Then she ran off to tell her friends, who in turn did the same. Soon everyone will know that the Hyuuga prodigy was here, and they'll all be rushing over to ask me a load of annoying questions that never end." Tenten explained, hoping that she had covered everything.

Suddenly some one screamed in the lobby of the hospital. It was soon followed by the voice that everyone dreaded…

"SORRY, BUT I MUST GO SEE MY YOUTHFULL STUDENTS NOW!" exclaimed the devil incarnate, followed by his little demon sidekick who found it to be the perfect moment to scream out "YOSH! I AM SO PROUD OF THEM!"

"Damn it, they didn't even need that much time… Anyways, here is where I leave you," Tenten exclaimed as she grabbed her shirt and back flipped out through the window and into the open air. "I'll get someone to finish this for me!" she screamed back towards a once more bewildered medic-nin, pointing to the bandages as she ran off into the distance.

Then the green abominations barged into the room, spouting their proclamations of youth, stopping only to ask where their lovable students/teammates had gone.

Sakura then deemed it a perfectly worthy time to take a break and run to Ino. Maybe she would know what to do with all of this… situation.


	2. First Kills

The first kill is usually the biggest hurdle of any ninja's career; it determines the ninja's future, personality, and how far they will progress during their career. It also is a decisive factor to whether or not the ninja survives to his or her next birthday. The first kill is as important as passing kindergarten, but with the emotional and physical effects of surviving (and sometimes not) a violent murder.

The number of reactions to seeing a person murdered by your hand can be infinite, depending on your morals or upbringing. Seldom few remain as they were before, the virgin mind often forever scarred by the brutality and frailty of life. However, of the reactions possible, a perverse feeling of unbridled joy is the most prevalent.

It may seem disturbing for one who has never killed, but the ease at which the human body can destroyed makes one feel… elated, as if they were a god. It is an awesome feeling; one can almost feel the power and adrenaline coursing through their veins, ready to burst at the slightest movement.

If joy was not associated with the killing, there would not be nearly as many shinobi as there is now. They are killing machines, and the job tends to live up to that name more often than not. Of the hundreds that enter the academy every single year, only a select number graduate, and even less ever make it past Genin.

Since you probably never have killed before, it may seem a bit – no, a lot - disturbing… nearly savage, that murderers may be called 'heroes.'

The truth is, most of them take years to acknowledge the fact that they have killed someone, some never do.

Hyuuga Neji's first victim was part of a Sound patrol that ambushed his team upon their return from a relatively simple mission. Since he had only graduated a few weeks prior, Neji knew that the ninja was of a much higher level than he was, and fought accordingly. After the remarkably short battle, Neji walked away. Behind him was a seemingly sleeping body, the only signs of death being the feeble trickle of blood running out of the shinobi's mouth.

Given that the victim looked nothing like a dead man, Neji simply passed it off as unconsciousness to ease the panic spreading through his mind. With time, he slowly became accustomed to the fact that he was killing, at first coming up with completely irrational reasons for why such and such was better off dead. The first time he killed because he was told to, and for no other reason, was during his first mission as a Jonnin. It took him nearly three and a half years to accept the fact that he had killed anyone because it was asked of him, and not because the world was better off without this man, even though it probably was.

Though this reaction is typical, the opposite also happens on a regular basis, Rock Lee is a perfect example of this.

Thought his first kill was later than both of his teammates, his reaction was much grander and caused a lot more trauma. Previously he simply used his super-human strength to knock his opponent unconscious, able to sleep at night with the knowledge that they would eventually recover and no _real_ damage had been done. Eventually the time when he faced an enemy that even unconsciousness would not defeat, and his first kill was in order.

The killing in itself was relatively simply, a few well-placed kicks were all it took to damage the spinal cord to the point of no return. The aftermath is what was the most difficult. The reality of the situation hit him full force, making him unable to sleep, eat or concentrate for several days after. His sensei, Maito Gai, having experienced the same sort of shock after his first killing, decided to take action. Taking him aside during a practice, he explained that the same thing had happened to him and that everyone copes differently. Seeing as that had no effect upon his distraught pupil, he then explained how the Springtime of Youth saved him from the pain and how it still helped him cope during particularly bloody missions. By living their life to its youthful extent, they could replace the lost youth of their victims.

The next day, the changes were visible. The taijutsu master in training was happier and more energetic. His concentration had returned and he was now able to put up a decent fight. Within the following weeks, Lee became the image of his savior, preaching the benefits of youth for all stupid enough to stay within hearing range.

Since we are exploring the reaction each of the members of Team Gai had to their first kill, and explanation of Tenten's seems to be required. Unlike her teammates, she neither denied nor was distraught by her first kill. Instead, she found a sort of insane jubilation from it… considering it a savage, twisted, and instinct based game.

Her first kill was at the same time as Neji's. Cornered and with nowhere to hide she brought out her massive array of weaponry and begun flinging it at the three men that surrounded her. At first they were soft, hesitant hits, but after a couple of minutes, the hesitant side of her disappeared and she grew braver throwing with all her might towards the men.

A smile much like a child's while playing their favorite sport formed on her face as she completed intricate contortions in the air, throwing more deadly projectiles all the while. The men, surprised by her raw enjoyment of their killing, were barely able to defend themselves before they formed a sickening resemblance to porcupines.

She single handedly killed half the patrol that day, and held no regret for it whatsoever. That is, until she woke up in the night shaking violently.

Maito Gai, having woken up thanks to the shaking, took her aside and tried to understand what was happening. She had looked fine just a few hours before, and even said she felt great right before going to bed.

"I don't remember anything. It was someone else took me over. But I can see the blood and metal. It was me… but not." Was all she said, curling up into a ball inside her sleeping bag. Her mind reeled from the brutality that she had caused, wondering endlessly upon the implications of what she had done. Those people were no worse than her, infact they probably had a cleaner past. They hadn't visited the police a half dozen times, nor had they ever stolen purses from under tourist's noses. What gave her the right to kill them?

Her now awake and curious teammates were watching her with curious eyes, gauging what she would do next.

Suddenly Gai looked up from his intense thought, "Tenten… that 'you but not you'. Do you think that might be a split personality?" Then Tenten smiled. She had earned herself a second self, a Tneten 2.0, so to speak. One that humans meant nothing to, one that could take all the blame for killing innocent people while the original Tenten lived on, blameless. Later she learned to cope without relying on Akane, the unofficial 5th member of their team.

Though all these events and reasoning may seem virulent and sickening to you, it was their method of coping. If you still do not understand, try imagining what you would do if you killed someone. Would you scream, faint or maybe even go mad? Well unlike yours, ninja's lives are constantly on the line and a sensible reaction could mean their own death. Becoming an emotionless killing machine may very well be the most efficient method of survival for one in their line of work.


	3. Talk

She woke up at six. She always woke up at six, everyday no matter what was happening. It was ingrained into her system. She had been getting up at six for the past seven years nearly without fault and that created some sort of a biological clock within her.

Slowly she raised her fits in the air, stretching her arms. Once that was over with, the limbs fell heavily unto the mattress.

Realizing something was wrong, Tenten's head slowly rotated towards the limb that hadn't quite made it all the way down. The grunt that accompanied it's crash-landing had also startled her, for it hadn't come from her.

No one was supposed to sleep on her bed! There were bodies sleeping all across the room, tangled up in their heavy fleece blankets, but no one was allowed on hers. It was a health hazard in case she came back from a mission and forgot to remove her armor and weapons before going to bed.

The slight panic rising within her was quelled as soon as she saw the silky black hair draped over the surrounding pillows. That kind of maintenance-less hair belonged to only one person, him.

By him, she meant Neji. The one and only Hyuuga Neji.

A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she slid off the bed. Then the smile faded as she remembered that Ino and Sakura were coming over to harass her about something stupid. She didn't know what yet, but it probably involved some form of torture. Now slumping, she made her way towards the sliding door closet in the far corner of the room.

Grabbing what she expected was enough clothing to cover her appropriately she made her way to the bathroom. Respectively the trip should have been over with quickly considering the miniscule apartment, but she was still shaking off sleep, and in no apparent rush to get ready for torment. Plus walls had a thing for being in her way. After taking a quick shower, Tenten finally discovered what she had grabbed; warm-up pants, a tank top, a hoodie, and the all-important underwear. Nothing special, but she was in no mood to impress people. Plus it was winter, and this apartment didn't exactly have the greatest insulation.

Once that was done, she began the menial tasks of cleaning the apartment. Since her schedule allowed her nearly no free time, and her roommates were akin to pigs, those tasks weren't done all that often. And in the past three weeks they had managed to accumulate a lot.

First was laundry. Stalking around the tiny space with a basket, she shoved every dirty piece of cloth she found, including Neji's clothing. He probably didn't care what happened to it anyways. As soon as she had taken everything she could carry she walked out, making sure the door was still open, and down the stairs to the five washers the apartment complex supplied. Throwing the clothing haphazardly in and feeding the machines the amount of money it required, she walked back up to begin her next task.

And that task just happened to be cleaning up the kitchen. Most of it involved cleaning away the innumerable quantity of instant-meal containers. Fresh food was expensive, and no one she lived with could afford it.

Once everything was done, she walked around the three-room complex, doing an assortment of monotonous and annoying tasks that needed to be done eventually. At some point during the mindlessness of it all, she ate breakfast.

At eight a knock could be heard against the door. The two had arrived, and whatever hell they had brought along was within moments of happening. Against all common sense she opened the door.

"Hi Tenten!" the loud and obnoxious Ino screeched at the poor victim. They were barely two feet away, would it have hurt her to lower the volume?

"Hi." Tenten returned feebly. Oh, how she dreaded 'make Tenten girly' time. She still didn't know why she agreed to it every time. "Come in."

"Thank you." Sakura said with a smile as she watched Ino rush into the apartment. They promptly sat on the couch, casting glances of approval and disapproval. Tenten was about to shut the door when she realized that there was still one more person out in the hallway.

"Hinata?" she asked, slightly surprised.

"Um… is N-Neji here?" the nervous kunoichi asked.

"Yeah, if you want you can come in and wait for him. Just don't tell the other two." Tenten responded.

Previously, Tenten had asked Hinata what punishments would befall either one of them if Neji slept at in her 'home' –it was more like a ramshackle pile of plaster and water pipes than anything- every so often. She had explained in length Neji's new rebellious phase and how she wanted to help in her own way. Apparently nothing would happen as long as it was kept a secret. Neji was feared throughout the compound and family, so they dared not enrage him. He would surely be able to kill a few clan members before they got the seal activated…

"A-Arrigatou." Hinata mumbled as she scurried in and proceeded to sit on one of the loveseats set on each side of the couch. Finally she closed the door and poured tea for everyone. Pouring honey in her own cup she sat down on the remaining loveseat.

"So… what's with the clothes?" Ino asked, going straight to the point. Sakura sighed and looked at Tenten, an apologetic look in her eye. Even though they were friends again, they didn't always agree.

"It's laundry day today, and this was the only thing left." Tenten replied, after more thought she realized that there were still _things_ in her closet, but they were covered in flowers and sequins; basically not worthy to be called clothing. _Infact I think they've been turned into toys for the kids…_ she thought to herself with a smile.

"Oh." Said Ino before she started ranting about something unimportant. Tenten daydreamed, absentmindedly nodding at all the right times. After a while Sakura joined the conversation, shouting at Ino for something stupid she said. Not that talking about how Tenten's inner girly side was begging to be freed was all too intellectual to start with.

Her daydreaming was interrupted by a small tug. Looking down she saw a tiny tuft of messy hair cocooned in a dirty baby blue blanket. Then a mouth appeared from the blanket, exposing all it's teeth in a yawn that could have dislocated its jaw.

"Who is he?" Asked Sakura as the blanket revealed a tiny hand kneading an sleepy eye.

"He's one of my roommate's charges." Tenten said as she looked over the boy. "Are you even dressed?"

The boy shook his head, a big smile gracing his lips.

Sighing, Tenten continued speaking, "Then go back in the room, and get whoever's there to dress you. There's how many others still in there?"

The boy extracted a hand from the quilt, making it hang loosely around his nude form, and he showed his five fingers pointing towards the ceiling. As soon as that was done, he grabbed the quilt again and wrapped it securely around him and walked back into the room.

"Sorry about that." Tenten said, not quite sure how to explain the presence of a four year old in her apartment. "What were we talking about again?"

But there was no answer.

Instead the two she had addressed sat, stalk still and gaping. She then looked at Hinata, who was also silent, but gaping with a little more dignity. Either she, or something behind her was very interesting. Since she did not think that her question was that dumb, she chanced a look backwards. Leaning her head against the back of the loveseat she saw a pair of crossed arms.

There stood Neji in all his smexy glory, frowning, half asleep and topless.

This wasn't going to turn out good.

Not. At. All.

"It your job to dress the brats, not mine." He said simply.

Of course he sent an angry glare to thunder down upon her, without any effect. She blinked innocently back, struggling against the victorious grin that was rapidly approaching. Why, she didn't know, but something about it made her think he'd never live it down. With a questioning glare, Tenten was forced to speak.

"The duo is here for their monthly 'gracefully fail at girl-a-fying Tenten session' and Hinata is here 'cuz Hiashi wants you back. Breakfast?" Tenten responded holding up her newly filled cup of tea. With one last angry glare he snatched the cup and stalked back the two feet to the bedroom. "I'll be right back…" Tenten said as she jumped out of her seat and ran in after him.

"Okay… what was that?" Ino asked as Tenten walked back into the main room.

"What was what?" Tenten replied innocently, coking her head slightly to show her confusion.

"Whatever just happened. First there's a mysterious kid that appears in the buff, then he appears telling you it's your job to dress kids. What the hell?" Sakura answered for her, shaking off the bewilderment.

"The kid lives here and Neji was angry he was woken up." Tenten responded once more, making her feel like this had turned into an interview.

"Why was he sleeping in your house?" Ino said; thus the uncomfortable and potentially humiliating questioning had begun.

"He wasn't." Tenten retorted, confusing her audience.

"Last I checked that's what people do before waking up." Ino said, frustrated that it was always her questions that were destroyed.

"I don't have a house, but yes he was sleeping… and I think it's because he was tired last night, he regularly uses this place as an area to crash before going to the Hyuuga compound." Tenten said, looking deep in memory. Her only achievement was to raise more questions than answers.

"Are you guys _together_?!?! As in a _couple_?!?!" Ino asked, putting heavy importance on a couple potent words.

"No." She replied simply. No matter how you look at it, her and Neji's relationship was nothing more than a grudging realization that they were more than friends… a lot more. But neither would admit it, especially to the gossip queens of the kunoichi world.

"Then why was he here?" Sakura asked, trying to glean as much information as she could form this conversation.

"Since he can't function without a constant enemy, within days of reconciling with the main branch, he started to despise the Council of Elders. So he comes here as a 'rebellious action' against them. Plus it also gives him time to recover from the change of setting. It's not that easy to switch from bloody killer to pristine silence. Oh, and Hinata, he'll be back at the complex by lunch. Currently he's sulking in his sleep and he won't wake up for another hour at least." Tenten replied, since his secret had been revealed, might as well shed light on it willingly.

"How do you know all this?"

"_He_ sulks!?!?!"

"O-okay…" shouted two of the girls, while Hinata said her answer in a reasonable tone.

"One question, how many people live in this apartment? Sakura asked, remembering the number of digits the boy had shown.

"I only live here a couple days a week, so not counting me: twenty." Tenten said.

Needless to say, it was a shock to the spectators. Two people could have problems living in this small an apartment, much less ten times that.


	4. Double Life

The heat of the room was nearly insufferable. He had been sitting here, in vaguely the same position, for the past hour and a half. The orbs of his eyes rotated between the two ancient men who were arguing with more fervor than thought possible. He had forgotten long ago what they were fighting about. Something about the maids most likely, they always seemed to be against the female half of the servants.

His mind drifted away once again, to the reason why he was stuck in this torture pit. The torture was supposed to be his training to become head of the clan, and he had no intention on ever taking that position. His jailor sat not five inches from him, at the head of the low table. He was silently sipping a cup of tea, listening intently to the conversation that the elders were having. He even frowned if something 'shocking' came up… which was quite often due tot the manner in which the elders were exaggerating.

They always exaggerated when it came to women. If someone told them they were spawns of evil and ready and willing to eat your guts on moment's notice, they would spout out some stupid tale about a personal account involving a maid eating guts. That or how a mother beat her child mercilessly.

Really the reason he was here was because of the hatred the clan 'elite' held against all of female-kind. He was not the true heir; Hinata or Hinabi would have fulfilled that job quite well, even with two X chromosomes. Come to think of it he had no reason to be here at all. Sure he was Hiashi's nephew, but there were many others with the same family ties that would be more than willing.

That itself might be the reason why he had been picked. A reluctant ruler was generally a better one than a power-hungry maniac. But still, he would never take the post. He wanted to be like a bird; free to fly wherever it wanted to. He'd made steps in that direction since he joined the academy against the clan's wishes. And team Gai had been a major collaborator with about ninety percent of those.

Speaking of Team Gai, he was missing training for this. Even though the team had been disbanded the year before, they were still together. They would never be able to leave each other, not now, not ever. They held so much of his sanity, he could not even dream of letting them run off with it. Plus they were the most efficient team there was; they always ended up together on missions anyways.

Absent-mindedly he reached out towards his cup of tea.

He was recalling his last mission, a quick assassination that had caused more trouble than necessary. The target had not only been armed, but knew how to used those blades too. Overall they had faired fine, only a couple of minor scratches on the majority of the squad.

He slowly lifted the filled-to-the-brim cup off the table. It's elegant fragility amplified by his rough and dangerous hands.

Tenten had been another matter. She had crumpled to the ground before any blows could have hit her. And she had stayed there, curled in a ball and clutching her head the entire fight. They had all realized how necessary she was, for the battle would have been over quickly if she hadn't fallen. While the others cleaned up he had gone to her, anxious and scared to know what was wrong.

It had taken her a while to uncurl enough to talk to him. He had been carrying her all the while, not ready to risk the both of them in the crime scene for much longer. The squad had stopped as soon as she moved, dispersing within the trees to do whatever they needed to. He had simply crouched on the closest branch and let her get used to controlling her own limbs. She stretched in silence for a while, inhaling as much fresh air as she could.

She told him she'd been having reoccurring headaches, ones that would take over her mind and destroy any hope for thought. She said they hurt a lot, but she would survive. She always did; life was though, but she was tougher.

Neji awoke from his trance as he felt burning liquid scalding his hand. He looked curiously at the source of the pain, realizing that he had been shaking.

Shaking from what?

As he looked around the room he realized nobody else seemed to feel …cold? Like he did. The elders were still arguing, others adding a comment here and there. Hiashi was still listening intently. None seemed bothered by the intense cold that seemed to permeate everywhere.

Realizing that he would find nothing by looking at the others, he looked back towards the small burn. It was of an odd shape, a thin crescent, much like the marks left behind after a nail dug into the skin.

His previous trail of thought rocketed back towards him. He had seen the marks her nails had left after she uncurled, and she had been shivering so hard he had wrapped her in his cloak while he carried her.

_Tenten!_

Completely without warning he rose from his seat and fled the room. He wasn't needed anyways, he wasn't even allowed to comment. They wouldn't miss him, but someone else would.

_I'm coming!_

Behind him, the teacup shattered as it hit the edge of the table. The poor piece of china never had a chance.

… … … … …

He found her curled on the ground floor of her apartment. Her groceries abandoned in a corner, at least what was left of them. In her kind of a neighborhood he was surprised there was actually something left in the crinkled paper bags.

Beside her hovered the crude form of what he supposed hid a boy. The shape scuttled back and forth between her and her bags. The boy picked up a spherical glass container out of one of the bags and stared at it in wonder, fondly caressing the bees on the label, as Neji strode next to his teammate.

"No touch! Ours!" screamed the boy, throwing the jar of honey at the wall only seconds before Neji bent down to carry her out. Quickly he dodged the oncoming missile, turning to face the boy all the while.

Behind him he heard the sphere shatter, expelling its sticky contents all over the area.

The poor boy was now pinned under Neji's murderous gaze, cowering and shying away from his eerie white eyes. Truth be told, that was the expected reaction, only a few had ever been able to stand him down, but the boy didn't know that. He was terrifed, and he had all the right to be. The boy darted to the corner, warily eyeing Neji the entire time. Once he was finally cornered the boy's tearing eyes rose to meet Neji's glare.

"N-no hurt... no hurt... h-her," the boy sniveled, sobbing between each set of words. Neji's gaze then softened marginally. The boy meant no harm; in fact, he was the reason she, and her groceries, still remained.

"I won't hurt her, I will help." Neji answered softly, delicately picking Tenten up. The boy seemed to nod in agreement, rising as well. Even though he was still afraid, he walked out of the lobby after Neji.

He smiled before pulling on the hem of Neji's shirt.

"Hospital?" he asked, running out ahead as soon as Neji had nodded in agreement. Neji walked on, instinctively knowing where the nearest hospital was, and the quickest route there.

After a couple minutes the boy disappeared, only to appear five minutes later at the doors of the hospital. Behind him stood five other shapes, all as covered in grime as he, and all as malnourished.

Under Neji's questioning stare the boy accounted for the others, "Wanted to see ane-san," Neji simply nodded and kept on walking through the sliding doors. Behind him the six shapes scuttled in as well.

… … … … …

"Ugh… m'head." Tenten mumbled as she opened her eyes.

"Well it is expected; you _are_ in a hospital." Neji said sporting a cross between a smile and a grin. He teased her, and her only, and always in private. After all, he couldn't let the world know he had emotions.

"You didn't have to ruin the surprise." She said as she fell back on the bed with a strangled cry of pain as her head hit the pillow.

"Now _that_ was smart," Neji said, still showing his sad imitation of a smile. With an indignant snort she rose from the bed, swinging her legs over the metal frame with just enough force to hit him in the knee.

"I'm guessing I'm here thanks to another headache, right?" she asked as Neji caught her ankle mid-flight.

"That and them," he answered, jerking his head to the right all the while still holding her ankle.

"Them?" She said before turning her head towards the mass of limbs that had decided to occupy the couch. She looked puzzled for a minute, making all sorts of worry blossom in his chest, before she recognized them. "Oh, _them_. I've never actually seen any of them without that coat of muck before. It's like they are different people." She said, with a motherly smile.

He let go of her ankle as she got up and off the bed, slowly approaching the sleeping mass.

"One of the nurses felt bad for them so she washed, clothed and fed them… the biggest one ate so much I had to pay for it." Neji said simply and with a hint of glowering that made her laugh.

"That would be Beetle. He always eats like no tomorrow, they all do." She said sadly, noting how visible their malnutrition was now. "I did too."

"How do you know them? The one… Beetle, called you ane-san." Neji said, not so subtly wanting to know.

"I was one of them until I was eight, and I help them when I can nowadays." She said while trying to untangle the mess and reposition them so no one was suffocated.

"You were a street urchin?" Neji asked in disbelief. No street urchin had ever made it to the academy, never. You needed a ninja to recommend you and pay for your education, and urchins didn't have that luxury. Plus the extremely poor didn't have time to go to school, much less the most time-consuming one there was.

"I guess you could call it that. I was part of their gang though, so not quite that low." She said with a smug smile, turning around to face her teammate. Not many people managed to shock the Hyuugas, but then again not many got close enough to do so.

"You… _you_ were part of a _gang_?!"

"Yep, we are called the shuriken, appropriate no?" she said, no fully enjoying her friend's disbelief. "Want to see the tattoo?"

Against all common sense (what kind of Hyuuga became ahem friends with an ex-gangster?!?!) he nodded, intrigued. With a mutter of "I better be wearing shorts" she lifted up the hem of the hospital robe just enough to show the small of her back.

Right above the waistline of her shorts, on the left side of her back was an exquisitely inked shuriken, it's four points seemingly sharp enough to cut if he touched it. In the center of the masterpiece, a cockroach was crawling out of the handhold, ready to pounce on the closest person.

It was just too crazy for Neji to comprehend. His hand extended of it's own accord, tracing the outline of the pest. "Why a cockroach?" he asked, mesmerized by the realness of the tattoo.

"Isn't it awesome? And the cockroach… is because that was my name. No matter where or for what they sent me, I came back." She said, letting the fabric fall back over her.

"So Beetle has a tattoo too? And it has a beetle on it?" Neji asked, finally able to make sense of the mesmerizing drawing on her back.

"Yup, every member above the age of five has one. You aren't allowed to get one before that. It would be a liability to the gang if you got caught, and the young ones are the easy targets. Plus, why bother naming someone if it's just going to cost you later on? The tattoo is also paid by your skill, mine looks that good just because I was the best." she said with an amused smile as she finally explained something to her genius teammate. Something he hadn't known before.

"Unoriginal names." He said simply, disapproving of anyone that would call her a cockroach.

"Well they all have something to do with personality, likes, dislikes or family. I'm not ashamed of my name, and you have to admit it fits." She said with a smile.

"Hn. I admit no one can take you down for long, but that's no reason to take on the name of a pest. How'd your name change from that to Tenten anyways?" he asked, now genuinely interested in his teammate's hidden life.

"That one's a long story…" She said hesitantly. She kept this half of her life hidden for so long, it felt weird for it to be told, even to him.

"I'm not going anywhere, and _neither are you_. Might as well." He answered with a hint of a threat in his voice. Damn his overprotective nature.

"Just don't repeat it to anyone. I don't want the whole shinobi community knowing I'm a gutter kid." She said, getting an impatient glare in response. "What? I'm not the one who blurted my life story in the middle of the chunnin exams." This time a menacing glare was sent towards her.

"Fine, I can't remember when or how old I was, but it was a festival night…. I think New Years. In any case, I was doing my normal rounds, taking what I could from all the tourists milling about the shops." Tenten, started saying but she was stopped by the raised eyebrow of her teammate. "What!? I was a theif, and a damn good one at that. Back to the life story that _you_ wanted to hear." She said with a fake pout until he lowered the eyebrow.

"Well I had gotten a lot of goods for one night, and I was about to go back to the hideout when I saw this very drunk-looking, blonde woman on heels that seemed way too big for her clumsiness with a huge purse of coins. I mean seriously, that thing could have fed us for a week at the least." She said, with extravagant motions for the size of the purse. Neji grinned at that, she had always loved wealth.

"I hid all my loot and followed her around for a while, learning her habits, weak spots, and all that fun stuff. After I'm guessing five minutes, she went up to buy dango and I trailed behind her. She sat at a table with this other woman, so that was going to set my plans back a little, but they quickly got into an argument and I managed to get my hands on the purse. I was about to leave the shop when a pig squeaked at me! Seriously, one of the best hauls of my life was ruined by a farm animal! Well at the moment I'm lucky I wasn't reduced to rumble, considering I had just robbed a drunk Tsunade, but I didn't know that then." She said as Neji emitted a sort of chocking laughter that made her worry.

"No, I'm fine… it's just the way you said it. I've never heard the Gondaime described that way." Neji said after she inquired about his health. Now she was just worried about his mental health… after all _he_ had just _laughed_.

"Well, I ended up running across the plaza dodging all sorts of projectiles, and throwing my own in return. I managed to hit her three times, but she never stopped. Eventually I got caught and was dragged to the police office kicking and screaming… well mostly kicking since they had taped my mouth shut..."

"They interviewed me none too gently, and took away nearly everything I had on at the moment, even if it was mine to begin with. They even took my shirt because it looked too big on me! Stupid bastards ruined that perfectly awesome night."

"Did they know you were part of a gang?" Neji asked, knowing full well that gangsters were dealt with harsher than simple pickpockets.

"Of course they knew, I had escaped from their detention cells too often for them to forget me. They didn't ever check for the tattoo. So, once again I was reduced to my underwear and pants in a nasty jail cell that hadn't been cleaned since the first time I got caught. They eventually brought Tsunade and Shizune in as witnesses to my crime, so that I could be lawfully be send to a proper high-security jail."

"I didn't hear much of what was said, but in the end I'm guessing they made some sort of a good deal, because I was set free… well sort of. Tsunade came to see me and said that if I escaped without setting any alarms off she would give me a proper life; one in which I would be free and live like a normal person. Of course I was completely up for the deal, it was better than any street kid could have ever hoped for." With those words said, she paused. Beside her sat the eldest of the girls, Bee, listening intently to everything she said. From behind she could hear the sounds of movement as the kids woke up and sat on every available surface, listening as well.

"I was out of the place almost before them, waiting under the tree on the front lawn of the police department. She gave me her coat, saying something about proper clothing, and I was off to my new life. She bought me new clothes and a couple of weapons, the best ones I had at the moment. They felt so much better than my cheap hand-made ones even though they were the bottom of the commercial ladder. They were mainly shuriken and needles, the stuff I knew how to handle, but I also got my first kunai from her. I thought it was simply the best weapon there was, it felt so cool to throw it." Tenten continued, adding in several more detail about the weaponry she had earned.

"Eventually she brought me to a temple where I was to stay during my schooling. It was nice and all, I was amazed by it's space and cleanliness at first, but the wonder soon wore off. Tne monks were nice too, but they tried to tameme, which I wasn't too fond of. They were the ones that changed my name; they said that cockroach was not the name of a respectable young woman. All they ever talked about was how I could be more polite, more well mannered, more refined; it wore me down."

"When I was finally allowed to attend the academy, I was first assigned to be with the beginners but I was completely out of place. Not only was I three years older- I'm really guessing, I have no idea how old I was… or am- and I was much more advanced than them. I was eventually brought up to your class and you know the rest." She said, glancing at her exponentially increasing audience.

"So basically you are just one really lucky urchin?" Neji asked, still absorbing the chaotic and confusing double life of his teammate.

"Yup, basically." She answered back , a goofy smile on her face. "And you are the first one I've ever told it to, so keep your mouth closed."

"Ane-san, is he a … a s-shinoobi?" a small girl asked, tugging on Tenten's sleeve, stumbling on the difficult word.

"Yeah, he's a really good shinobi, top of his class, prodigy and genius. See his eyes, with those he can see your insides." Tenten said, poking the girl's stomach to emphasize the kekkei genkai. She smiled as nearly everyone in the room shriveled in disgust and said "Ewww!" at her definition of his abilities.

"Very crude, but valid if one looks extremely hard." Neji said, summoning confused glances from the children.

"Speak like a child to a child, Neji. Especially the uneducated, street kind." Tenten chided him.

"How many of these 'uneducated, street children' are there anyways. Last time there wasn't this many." He said, watching the sea of faces in front of him. Beetle sat in a corner with two other boys, taking apart the cabinets of the room in search of more food, or anything they could later sell. The tree girls of the group sat around Tenten, while he held an infant that had not been there before in her arms. The last child has busy poking at Neji's Hyuuga dress, trying to figure out what the black cloth was for.

"Last I checked we're twenty three in the gang, but these eight would be the children. There was ten last year, but two died from the flu. These are actually very lucky to even be this old." She said, tucking the blanket wrapping the infant over the back of his head.

"And I suppose you take care of them on a regular basis?" Neji said, finally getting annoyed at the boy playing with his clothing.

"Mouse, stop that! He doesn't like it when you touch him." Tenten said, scolding the young boy for his overly curious nature. "And yes I do, they normally live in my apartment when I'm gone and all the time during the winter. And I clothe them once a year."

"Very noble of you," Neji said as another boy joined 'Mouse' to examine the contents of his weapons pouch. Wait- how'd they get that?

"Not really, they are my family. As the big sister, I tend to have to take care of them. Moral duty and all that." She said, trying to swat away the tiny hand that pilfered his pouch.

"Family?" he asked, surprised she could call them that.

"Yeah. They are really just like shinobi, so you can stop looking at them like animals. They are fighter, just like you are. The losses are the same, and just the conditions are better." She said as the boys finally relinquished his stuff.

In the background one of the girls stood up, puffing out her chest. With a thin and bony finger she poked at the center of her chest, hitting the ribcage. "Not animal!" she said, proudly holding her stare to Neji's questioning gaze. Around her, the children's head nodded in unison, whether they had understood or not.

With time, he could get used to that concept. She was re-writing half of his beliefs anyhow, this one couldn't hurt.


	5. Deaths

She was dying.

She was dying and she knew it.

The mission had been going perfectly, they had completed it in record time. Their prey had been seduced by a mere look and the assassination had been completed within the next hour.

It had been to perfect to last.

Just as they were leaving the expensive inn, the guards had attacked them. They had fought them off, killing them quickly and without regret.

But they had underestimated one of them. Just before the last guard fell, a needle hit Tenten in the side. She had ignored it at the time, more preoccupied with getting out of this particular brawl.

When they finally beat the guards and escaped, it was too late.

Their success had made them sloppy. And sloppy killed.

Neji had called a stop when she started to shake violently. Because it was only the two of them, he found a relatively dry cave and brought her over. By then she had already lost her last meal and had started coughing out blood.

Silently she sat on the floor, clutching herself for the tiniest bit of heat still within her. She got marginally warmer when Neji wrapped his sleeping bag around her, wrapping his arms around her in an attempt to repress the shaking.

They stayed like so for a while, the only movement due to her constant shaking and coughing.

Then the shaking stopped.

The chasm that it created was deafening. Without the constant rustling of fabric, there was nothing to hide her quick, shallow breaths. A recovery suddenly seemed more and more hopeless. He lowered his mouth to her neck, attempting to gauge her heart beats.

They were way too slow.

"N-Neji?" she croaked out. His arms tightened around her in response, trying to keep her from disappearing into nothing.

He knew too.

"Can you… promise… me two things?" she asked, seeming so fragile in his arms, but he didn't refuse.

"Tell them… everything goes… to the guys…" she said slowly, forced to take a breath between each couple of words.

"Hn." He responded, agreeing to the first terms and reluctant to hear more.

"… And can you… be the one to… kill me?" She finally said. He wasn't surprised; he had actually been expecting it. He would have asked the same of her. She wanted to die of her own accord, not of someone else's.

That fact didn't make it any easier.

Obediently he lifted his chin off of the smooth skin of her neck and maneuvered himself so he was now facing her.

For the very last time, he claimed her lips. It felt nothing like any of the other times. Instead of the rebellious joy he had always felt, there was dread and fear. Fear of what life would be like without her. He was no longer as strong as he had once been; he had grown dependent on her. He would not be able to face the world like he had as a child.

With one final shudder she went limp in his arms.

Vehemently he spat out her last breath, hating it with all his might. It was the reason that his life was in ruins. It was the one who had taken away his security blanket. It was the one who left behind the sickening taste of her blood in his mouth.

A few minutes later he was gone. He had no reason to stay in that place. He sped towards Konohakagure with everything he had. Personal safety was no longer important. He wanted to get her body to the people who could treat it best.

At the gates, he met up with the guards.

They weren't used to seeing the top kunoichi coming home in the arms of a teammate, so they asked the dreaded question.

"What's wrong with her?" said the younger one.

"Death." Neji responded simply. The guards then gasped and stood there stunned. Neji kept running. Soon he reached the hospital, the only place he thought suitable for her.

It was only when he finally relinquished her to the medical staff did he remember that he forgot their gear in the cave.

Too bad, he wasn't ever going back.

Instead he walked to the Hokage's tower to give the report on his mission. He delivered it like he always had. The mission had been a success; the intended task had been accomplished.

Tsunade had already been notified of Tenten's fate, and Shizune was still struggling to keep the sobs inside. They had been the ones to fund her years at the academy, the ones to find her in the dirty streets of the ghetto.

"Did she request anything?" Tsunade finally asked.

"She said to give everything to the gang." Neji replied without the open disgust common to middle and upper class citizens. It was then that the world first fathomed the depth of their involvement.

"Oh." Was her simple response. Simple to say she was stunned. Tenten had promised to never tell anyone of her involvements. Her life as a gangster could have very quickly kicked her out of the job, for it was an alliance other than the one shinobi had to their village.

But that was not the most shocking part of it. It was well known that the Hyuugas, and nearly all of the other great clans of Konoha, despised the street urchins living amongst them. They ruined Konoha's perfect reputation, and were responsible for more than half of the crime rate.

With nothing left to say, Neji left the bewildered women behind.

He took a detour going home, passing by the less reputable parts of town. Once he reached a run-down restaurant he ducked though the door and walked straight to the back. A couple heads turned at the sight of a well-dressed man crossing the threshold of a decrepit shop. But passed it off as a visit from the owner.

In the kitchens he was immediately recognized. A little boy ran ahead of him to alert 'Father' while the rest drew straws to see who would have to keep on working. The solemn expression on Neji's face and his lack of a Tenten had foreshadowed grim news, and none wanted to be the last to know.

Eventually he told his story to the assembled gang. He hid nothing, he never hid anything from his new family.

Many wept for the loss of their sister, while others stood in shock and denial.

She had become their idol, the idol of all the lower class. She had made a life out of nothing.

And now she was dead.

The brave ones left to go tell the children currently residing in her old apartment. She had long ago given it to the gang in exchange fro the more luxurious Hyuuga building Neji owned. Others went back to their jobs, pretending that she would come home soon.

Father came to him as he was leaving.

"Make sure you find her again." Was all he said, a sad smile gracing his lips.

"I will," Neji responded, filling the surrounding people's minds with hope.

She wasn't actually dead. She had just been reborn.

That night Neji didn't come to dinner. He had spent the rest of the day beating wooden training blocks to mulch, and had locked himself in his home shortly after.

For the good part of an hour he had sat against the wall facing the bed, deep in thought. He did not move at all during that time, seeming like a statue frozen in time.

Around eight o'clock he finally detached himself from the wall. He silently trod down the hallway to the closet where Tenten kept her extra weaponry before returning to the bedroom.

At eight thirty a worried Hinabi knocked against the door of her cousin's home. After five minutes with no answer, she forced open the door. The silence around her was oppressive, making her jump at every little noise.

Finally she reached the door of the master bedroom. She hesitated for a second before turning the knob and swinging the door open.

The room was pitch black, but she could hear the steady dripping of what was probably the sink or shower.

Slowly she reached out to the light switch. She was puzzled as she finally touched it, wondering why it was wet.

As soon as light flooded the room she got her answer.

A piercing and bloodcurdling scream quickly followed her realization.

For all the tidiness of Tenten's death, Neji's was a mess.

… … … … …

Somewhere in Washington D.C. a young boy cried at the disappearance of his pet lorikeet. The boy had been playing with the bird right before he had gone to watch TV. He had been exclaiming about the bird's unusual eye color to his best friend as they sat down to watch his favorite show; Naruto.

The bird had watched the television intently from his cage, twittering to himself whenever a certain loud-mouthed blonde said something stupid. Then a bun-haired female appeared on the screen.

He had felt the irresistible urge to fly to her.

Thus he had once again escaped his cage, breaking the lock and escaping out the open window.

He flew around the busy city, flitting around traffic and gliding over the apartment complexes.

He was found three days later when the zoo officials came out for the newly born panda cub's latest weight-in. The zookeepers exclaimed over this odd phenomenon, but let the bird reside with the family.

Soon enough visitors were pouring in to come see the little cub playing around with the agile bird, a goofy smile brightening her chubby face. They would flitter around each other for hours, engaged in an intense mock-fight.

Their 'sparring' sessions turned more and more complex as the animals grew up, the panda occasionally laid out elaborate traps for one of his specie, causing a great commotion in the visitors each time something set them off.


	6. Scarred

She had left four days earlier on a top-secret mission. Now he was being called down to the Hokage's office to provide back up.

He did not like this one bit.

Silently the three males flattened themselves against the wall, hoping that whoever belonged to the footsteps echoing down the hall hadn't heard them. They had almost made it to their destination without anyone in sight, but it seemed like their luck was going to run out.

Slowly the footsteps turned down another hallway, becoming fainter. Two of the boys breathed a sigh of relief while the other remained calm despite the rising panic inside of him.

Once the footsteps had disappeared, he whispered silently to his teammates, "Hurry, she's fading."

That was all that was needed to send the others into a silent hysteria.

By the time they had recovered, the leader of their group was already sprinting down the hallway and practically throwing himself down a flight of side stairs. The two others quickly followed, ready to do anything to save her.

The two slowed to a stop in front of a pair of double doors, but that wasn't what had stopped them. Before them stood their teammate, eyes wide in horror and shock, his hands trembling at his side.

For the first time in their life they considered themselves lucky not to have the byakugan.

Then he closed his eyes, interrupting his rare moment of weakness. He turned to his teammates with a decided and murderous air.

"Naruto, you go in first. Take down the guards. Lee, you'll go in as soon as the nobles are distracted. You aren't allowed to kill them, just get them unconscious. Under no circumstances are you allowed to look at anything else than what you're attacking, understood?" Neji said with authority. Lee nodded silently, understanding that there was something Neji wanted to keep from them, and probably for a good reason.

"What are you going to do? Why can't I look at anything?" Naruto asked, unaccustomed to blindly trusting Neji's word.

"Go!" was his only answer. Reluctantly Naruto obeyed, opening the door and running straight into a guard. Suddenly all hell broke loose, the twenty-something guards throwing themselves onto Naruto as a couple ran to protect their masters.

A few seconds later, Neji sent Lee out, following quickly after. Lee ran straight to the small clump of frightened men in the center of the room, not looking anywhere else, just like Neji had demanded.

He knew that he didn't want to see what was happening around him.

As for Neji, he quickly looked around the room, and dashed towards a slumped and bloodied mass. Quickly he crouched down next to the mass and scanned his with his byakugan, trying to analyze the damage within the half-light.

In any case, he was neither pleased nor appeased. Inside him, a knot tightened itself for the millionth time since he had been called to the Hokage's office.

Slowly and carefully he unfolded the mass, revealing a bloodied woman. Her pants were torn at the hip, looking like a pair of coarsely cut short shorts, and revealing large gashes all down her legs. The few scraps of fabric that remained of her sports bra, never mind her shirt, were bloodied as well, showing a marred battlefield he wished he hadn't seen.

Painfully, she smiled at him as he leaned her against the wall.

"The others…" she managed to say in a hoarse and pained voice. He stared at her in a glare of defiance. She was dying for god's sake! Couldn't she be selfish when it mattered!?!

"Go, I can't die anymore. You wouldn't let me…" she whispered before slumping to the side and falling on the floor. Panicked out of his mind, Neji pressed his fingers lightly to her neck, searching in vain for a pulse. When he found nothing, he opted for the more refined way. Activating his byakugan, he focused all his energy on visualizing her heart.

The first sigh of relief of his entire life escaped his lips as he saw the faint flutter of the cardiac muscle.

Taking off the shirt of his traditional Hyuuga dress, he carefully wrapped her semi-nude from in it, carefully lying her down in what he hoped was a comfortable position.

The now topless Hyuuga prodigy quickly ran towards the next terrified life form in the room.

As soon as he approached her, the curled ball of a girl whimpered and threw a pair of tiny arms over her head to protect herself, making him slow down. Obviously a half naked man running towards her wasn't what she had been waiting for.

"Shh, we're here to help you." He said as comforting as he could. "Are you hurt?" he continued, crouching down to her level.

Slowly she extended her arm, revealing a series of large bruises and a significant lack of any clothing at all. Never turning from the girl and hoping his elevated voice wouldn't scare her, Neji called out, "Naruto! Give me your jacket!"

Said person turned towards the sound of his voice, removing his jacket all the while. He stepped forward to throw it, and consequently saw the poor little girl. Quickly throwing the jacket before the urge to throw up ruined it, Naruto turned around again.

Catching the jacket and handing it to the girl before him, Neji scolded, "I told you not to look!" As the girl dressed herself, he spared a glance to see if Lee had followed his orders. Satisfied with seeing him completely absorbed with the typing of his captives, Neji started to rise to see to the final victim. Halfway up, the felt the girl grip the cloth of his pants, begging him not to leave.

Bending back down he hoisted the girl up, resting her against his hip as he walked across the room.

Gracefully bending down despite the extra passenger, he picked up the tiny body lying unconscious in the pile of velvet cloth and metal wire. Smiling sadly to himself as he realized that Tenten had used the last of her energy to save the infant, he passed the frail body to the girl, who eagerly encased him in her thin arms.

"Naruto, help Lee bring the captives out of here." Neji called out. Naruto silently complied, looking drained and fragile due to the loss of all the mission rations he had eaten in the past two days.

Now that each of his teammates was laden with two unconscious nobles, Neji walked back over to Tenten's fallen body and, still gracefully, hoisted her on his other hip, her cheek resting against his neck and arms swinging at every step.

Once he emerged into the main floor of the palace, he saw that it had been swarmed with the special guard of the feudal lord and they had already taken possession of the prisoners. Behind him he heard the rush of footsteps as a squadron disappeared into the gloom of the staircase, not expecting the carnage that lay in wait for them.

Naruto and Lee were milling about, waiting for a chance to be productive. At the sight of a female-laden Neji, Lee ran off to find a medical-nin, or actually anyone with one ounce of medical knowledge.

Continuing on his way, Neji jerked his head towards the direction of their hotel room, looking in Naruto's direction. Understanding what he meant, Naruto ran after Lee to tell him where the victims had gone to before walking to the hotle room himself.

As soon as he reached the hotel room, he let go of the girl, letting her sit on the bed as he gently laid out Tenten.

As Naruto opened the door, he simply said, "Go buy them suitable clothing." And Naruto ran back out. With that said, Neji disappeared into the bathroom. He cam back out a minute later with a handful of wet towels and said to the girl, "A bath's ready for you." Immediately she handed him the infant still clutched in the paws, and ran to the source of warm water.

As the girl took a bath, Neji cleaned off the infant and wrapped him in the sheets he tore off the neighboring bed. Placing the baby against a pillow, he looked at the massacre that was his usual mission partner. Carefully and with a methodical precision he cleaned off her face, relieved to see that she had managed to protect it from their blades, fists, and kicks. Once she was bearably clean in that area, he removed his shirt from around her and began cleaning off the seemingly endless amount of grime that had encrusted itself there.

As soon as he started cleaning it off, he wished he hadn't. The massive amounts of blood gave the impression that she had bled a lot from a few wounds, but the cleaning revealed the opposite.

Soon he lost track of time, methodically cleaning off the areas that seemed to be the worst hit. Sometime along the line the girl walked out of the bathroom, her skin bright red from incessant scrubbing and dressed in a bathrobe ten times too big for her 7-year-old frame, and sat next to the infant. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the girl caressing Tenten's hairline, the oversized bathrobe trailing behind her bony hand.

Just as the girl was about to fall asleep Naruto, Lee and a wrinkly old woman entered the room. Immediately the little girl threw herself behind Neji, intimidated by the sudden appearance of so many people.

Knowing they were not necessary, Lee and Naruto dropped the shopping bags full of clothes and left to help with the investigation of the palace. And possibly to retrieve wha remained of Tenten's things.

Raising his arm the reveal the girl, the beckoned the old lady forward.

"Bring her to the tub." The old lady said, pointing at Tenten's inert body. Neji complied, carefully picking her up and walking into the bathroom. Before him, dark ochre water, the remnanats of the girl's bath, streamed out of the plughole of the tub. Once the tub was empty he laid her body down in it and stepped back as the old lady took over.

"Honey," she said to the little girl, "Can you come help me?" The girl imedietly nodded and kneeled next to the old woman. "Can you wash her hair?" the old woman asked as the girl nodded and began taking out the elastics that kept the bloody clumps of hair up.

Under the constant downpour of the shower, Tenten was gradually shedding the vile crust she had accumulated.

Eventually Neji left the two females alone, called back to the room by the cries of the newly awakened infant. Taking a dry towel and wrapping the infant in it, Neji walked down to the lobby's store to buy diapers and milk, something he had promised himself never to do.

When he came back up, the little girls sat on the edge of a seat while the old lady removed the dirty sheets from the bed. The girl immediately took the infant back, feeding it with Neji's instruction.

"Bring the woman here." Commanded the old lady as Neji brought out Tenten's body wrapped in a large towel.

It was then that Lee walked in, carrying Tenten's massive summoning scroll and her weapons belt. He immediately dropped them all on the floor, making the girl jump up and clutch the infant, at the sight of the infinite gashes that littered Tenten's body. Carefully stepping over the pile of weaponry, Lee advanced into the room, asking permition from Neji.

His answer was to lay Tenten down on the bed and walk off to the bathroom to clean the blood and grime that had gotten on him during the past transportations. To Lee that meant 'I don't care.'

The old woman examined Tenten as soon as she has been lain on the bed. With surprising speed for someone of her age, the old woman reached into her bag and grabbed a vile of antibacterial cream and several rolls of bandages. With a painstaking precision the woman started wrapping Tenten in miles upon miles of white linen.

Once Tenten had gained a new layer of white, the woman moved over to examine the girl and the infant, declaring them 'mentally unstable, but physically fine.' Neji only half listened to the health report of the children, too focus on forcing Tenten to wake up through sheer willpower.

"Sir, I suppose she would like to know this if she wakes up. She's sterile, there was a large gash going through her uterus, probably done in frustration. Those pants of hers are near impossible to get off." The woman said, laughing at the trouble she had had removing that piece of clothing. It had been Neji who had finally removed it, surprising her with his knowledge of the difficult article of clothing. After that incident she had looked at him with a sly, knowing smile on her face that made Neji feel extremely awkward.

Biting back the urge to say, "she's already sterile," he opted for the more sensible, "_When_ she wakes up, not _if_" To that the old woman smiled and put her supplies back in her bag. She then went to the shopping bag, taking out what seemed to be the clothing destined to the little girl and gave them to her with the order to put them on.

When she turned around and saw Neji dressing Tenten in the bought clothes she asked, "Why aren't you dressing her in her own clothes?"

Playing with the fold of the sleeve and fixing Tenten's face his eyes, he remained silent. The knowing smile that reappeared upon the old woman's lips suddenly made Neji feel more awkward than he ever had before.

Once everyone was clothed once more, the old woman got up and surveyed her work. Before her lay her three patients sleeping in an orderly mess of tangled limbs. The other two males were also asleep… well was pretending to still be awake, but the protective arm over Tenten and his peaceful expression completely gave him away.

She might as well go tell the other that everyone here was going to come out fine, only with a whole lot more scars than they ever wanted to have.


	7. Secrets Come Out

Neraly half the population of Konoha was there, standing around the Hokage's building. Only a select hundred had actually been allowed unto the roof, most of them Hyuugas.

It has been the single most difficult funeral to organize, at least in Tsunade's opinion. That didn't even include the fact that it was the first funeral that most of the organizers had participated in.

She remembered Sakura telling her that Naruto, Hinata and Hinabi had been arguing for three days straight with Hiashi and the Hyuuga elders for the joint burial. Their first prodigy in generations was laying Hyuuga tradition to ruins one step at a time. And it was contagious, just look at Hinata.

Climbing the final stairs to the roof, Tsunade replayed her speech in her mind. Burial speeches were probably the worst job she had to fulfill as the Hokage. Luckily there hadn't been all to many dead in the past thirteen years she had been in that position, but the loss of her two best was a definite blow, especially since she had funded one.

Before her lay a sea of ebony haired, white-eyed males and sparse females. In another corner stood all the non-Hyuuga guests, mainly other ninjas who had had some connection to the pair. Next to the door stood four people Tsunade could not recognize.

Looking up to the old woman holding his hand, the little 5 year old boy spoke up.

"Obaba, why aren't okaasan and otoosan here?" he asked, making the quiet crowd turn to him.

Bending down to the little boy's level, the old woman said, "Hizashi, okaasan and otoosan are gone for a really long, top secret mission, we're here to say goodbye to them. They couldn't come in person because of the mission." Immediately every single mouth dropped open in shock. _They_ had had a _child_!?!?!

The old man holding the hand of a preteen girl looked out over the crowd of surprised faces and bluntly said, "This is going to be hard to explain."

Hiashi was the first to recover, and he promptly stepped towards the foursome with a 'if only he was alive so I could wring his silly little neck' glare.

"Is _that child_ my _nephew's_?" he asked, not believing that the scarred little human hiding behind the skirts of the old woman was part of his family. Seeing the reaction of the child, the girls let go the hand of the old man to pick up the little Hizashi and protect him from the 'scary man' the little boy was babbling about. "Is _she_ his too?" Hiashi said, nearly spitting out the words.

Against the expected, the old woman stood her ground. She even went as far as saying, "That depends on who _your_ nephew is."

"Hyuuga Neji is my nephew, the one we are burying." Hiashi said, adding insult to injury.

It was then that Tsunade decided to intervene. "Before we start Konoha's next civil war, can we all just calm down?" she said, quieting the small side conversations that had erupted.

"Did you know about this?" Hiashi said, completely out of his mind. His nephew was trampling the family traditions at an inconceivable pace.

"No, I'm as in shock as you. Now, Mrs. would you like to explain all of this?" Tsunade said, turning from Hiashi to the old woman.

"One day Neji came back from a mission with Hizashi and Hotaru," the old woman started, pointing to the girl and the little boy she held. "I think it was a rescue mission, because Tenten was immediately sent to the hospital and stayed there for about three weeks… Anyways, they didn't know what to do with the children, since they had no known parents. So they adopted them. They were placed in our care when they were on missions." The old woman simply said.

Suddenly a cry could be heard in the ranks of the ninjas. "Naruto! Naruto!" Lee cried out, "You remember that mission where Neji told us not to look, but you did, and Tenten came out a bloody massacre?" Lee was practically jumping up of excitement waiting for Naruto to realize what he was talking about. Then Naruto's eye opened wide.

"Those two are the ones he brought out!?!" Naruto exclaimed looking intently at the girl. She did look vaguely familiar, big brown eyes and dirty blonde hair. As for the boy he had the same brown eyes, but a dark mop of black hair graced his scalp instead. To tell the truth, apart from the common eye and hair colors, they looked nothing like the couple they were burying.

Unexpectedly Naruto decided to follow in Lee's run towards the children, but he forgot to let go of Hinata's hand, and consequently dragged her along behind him. When they arrived Lee was already having a conversation with Hotaru, asking questions along the line of, "Are you still mute?" or "How've you been?" while she answered with a nod or a shake of the head. Naruto soon joined in, his overly friendly nature kicking in. Hinata seemed lost in the reunion, opting for holding Hizashi while Lee and Naruto dragged Hotaru off to introduce her to all of their friends.

"Hinata…" Hiashi growled as said person took the five-year old into her arms. Hinata was about to look over to her father when Hizashi spoke up.

"Otoosan told me never to go near people with scary white eyes. He said that if I do, they would eat me! But you don't have scary eyes, even though they are white!" the boy said, stating it with as much energy and excitement as his little body could contain. He seemed so proud to be spreading the lesson he had learned so well.

Behind him, the old man slapped his forehead, muttering, "that child is just one big problem!" while Hiashi became absolutely livid.

Hinata was a little shocked at first, but soon giggled at his comment saying, "He can't eat you silly! You don't fit in his mouth anymore."

It was then that Tsunade decided to end this little fiasco before more people needed to be buried. Using as much of her diplomatic prowess as she could, she called out to the people assembled before her. "Okay! Now it's time to go pay your respects then leave! There are other people who want to see them too!"

Immediately ranks were formed and a line started migrating towards the single picture frame. In it stood the picture Lee and Gai had taken for Neji's 26th birthday, coincidently the day he was being buried. In the center stood Neji, arms crossed over his chest and an eyebrow raised while Tenten clung to his neck, two fingers making bunny ears behind his head while sticking out her tongue.

The first people to arrive to it were Lee and Naruto, still dragging Hotaru along, and Hinata who was holding on to Hizashi. With an unspoken accord, they let the two children go forward on their own.

Hotaru grabbed Hizashi's hand once she reached the small table the frame was resting on. Silently she placed an orange feather and a senbon on the table as a tear fell down her cheek.

"Okaasan, Otoosan, bye bye. Have a fun mission." Was all the kid said before running back to Hinata's arms.

The rest of the goodbyes followed, Hyuugas with straight faces placing a white roses upon the table, ninjas professing the couple's skill in battle. Lee and Gai came last, laying their gifts on top of the pile. When the crowd left, the smiling face of a teddy panda holding a jar of honey and an arts-n-craft bird shone across the roof.

In her mind Tsunade sighed, happy for the end of the formal ceremony. Then she realized she forgot to give her speech. Too bad, probably no one noticed thanks to the hidden secrets they discovered. Smiling sadly back towards the toys strewn upon the dead foliage, she descended the stairs and opened the roof to the public.

As soon as she stepped off the staircase, a mass of dirty little children and grubby looking adults flowed over the stairs. She smiled to herself as she spotted a shuriken tattooed on one of their backs.


	8. Letter

_Okaasan, Otoosan,_

I know it's been a while since I've written to you, a year exactly, but I've only recently accepted your disappearance. So many things have happened since you two left, and I thought that you would like to know them.

You're funeral was… exciting to say the least. Hizashi accidentally blurted out that you two were our parents in front of all the Hyuugas and Shinobi that came to see you off. That ignited a huge scene, in which Tsunade had to come to our rescue. We also got to meet all your friends and teammates, we became instant news throughout Konoha, and Hizashi loves all the attention.

_After that day, things started dying down. We inherited your room, and Hizashi often disappears into it. That's how I learned that he had realized what had happened. At the funeral, Obaba had told him that you guys were just on a long mission, but I know he knows better. For some time he would sit quietly in bed until he thought I was a sleep and then he would steal out to your room. Of course he showed none of that to the public eye, he was raised by the best of all human ice cubes. _

_He finally stopped leaving at night when he started going to the Academy. Lee is currently funding him, and he loves being the king of his class. He told me that he would eventually become, and I quote, "More awesome than Okaasan and Otoosan combined!!!" At the rate he's progressing, I think it might actually be possible. _

_Since I am too old to go to the academy, Lee decided to personally help me hone the skills you two taught me. I go out once a week to train with him, and the rest of the time I need to train on my own. I do believe I am getting better, and I also learn by helping with Hizashi's homework. But fighting is not really my true skill, everyone seems to think hat my writing is so much better. _

_I have also written many of the stories and anecdotes you told me, at first because people wanted to know more about you, and now because it's practically an industry. The idea of the two best Shinobi of one of the most prosperous countries in the world leading entirely secret second lives is nothing short of a bestseller here. The most popular story is the one where you get your new name; apparently they all thought that it had to do with the common Chinese name Tian. The demand is really high, and Jiraiya-sama has agreed to transform a couple of them into manga. Of course, Naruto and Hinata forced him to draw them in a decent manner, so that children could read it as well. _

_Speaking of Naruto and Hinata, they are everywhere all at once. Tsunade declared that she will be retiring next year – apparently 15 years was enough for her – and she declared Naruto her successor. Of course that means that Naruto has been taking less missions and spends most his time integrating himself into the politics and diplomacy of Konoha. Hinata quickly became his mentor and advisor, being there every single time to tell him what was off-limits and what would give him an advantage. Together they work very well, and most everyone has accepted them into the elite community. Of course the Hyuugas shun them, especially after the little stunt Naruto pulled. _

_Hinata's team was going to go on a three-day mission, but they were missing a fourth member. So Naruto volunteered. Tsunade agreed and sent him with the group and they were gone for 3 days, as excepted. Since they came on the 13__th__ of December, and you weren't there to protect Hinata from Hiashi, a marriage was going to be set up. The first insult was that Naruto went out with her to the meeting, which was bad enough, but he didn't stop there. He actually told Hiashi that Hinata couldn't get married to the 'poor Hyuuga boy.'(The Hyuuga was three years younger than Hinata.) In any case, Hiashi got furious and asked why. Apparently Naruto had married Hinata during the mission to save her form the possible future of a docile Hyuuga wife. _

_That was the day that Hiashi finally snapped. Truthfully he had been a living time-bomb ever since you died, but that was the final straw. He shut off all connections to the outside world, bringing back every single Hyuuga to the compound and making them resign form all their non-clan obligations. As far as we know it will be Hinabi that will take over the clan, and that Hiashi is a certified psychopath. He continuously mutters that every one of his children is against him, and that it's all his brother's fault for creating 'the monster who started it all.' The few facts we know come from Hanabi, who sends out a short letter once every two months. _

_Before he shut the clan off from the rest if the world, Hiashi has the word Hyuuga erased from your name. Everyone who actually knew you smiled when they saw the artisans covering it up.Sso now you are finally separated from the clan, just as you had always wanted. _

_I have to finish this letter quickly, because in about eleven minutes I have to go to Lee's training sessions, and then after that I have to go pick up Hiashi at the Academy and bring him over to Naruto and Hinata's place for dinner. Especially now that Hinata no longer has her clan, we are invited more and more often to go and hang out with them. We aren't allowed to tell them where we live, for the gang's protection and all that, but we spend a lot of time at other people's houses. So far everyone has been really nice, and I especially like talking with Sasuke... well it's not really talking since I can't talk, and he rarely says anything. But it's fun anyway. Other than that I really like being around Lee, he talks a lot so I don't really have to say much, and when I do need say something I used the 'top secret language of youth' that he developed especially for me. Even though I'm not very fond of the name it sports, it has come in pretty handy. And don't worry, I will never wear spandex nor cut my hair that way, I will remain sane. _

_Well I've got to go, Beetle just came in and told me that if I don't hurry up I'd be running laps for the rest of my life. Even though Lee is really nice, he can be one evil slave driver when he wants to. _

_I promise to write again soon, and I will never forget you two._

_Love ya!_

_Hotaru_

Carefully folding the sheet of paper covered in perfect calligraphy, Hotaru sat up and walked to her bed, where an envelope lay. Placing the paper inside it and sealing it, the fifteen year old ran in circles looking for the black marker she used to write on envelops. Finally finding it, she wrote in her manicured handwriting:

To: Neji and Tenten 

Finally grabbing her army-green messenger bag, the letter held tightly in her hands, Hotaru ran out of the room, almost trampling her best friend, Beetle, in her haste to reach the training grounds before she had to run a million and a half more laps.

Her heavy bag slapping against her side, the teen ran to the monument erected specifically for the fallen Shinobi. Instinctively tracing the name of her parents, she dropped the letter on the gleaming rock. A few second later, she turned around and sped towards the Forest of Death, awaiting the punishment for her tardiness.

"Go run 20 laps around the forest." Reprimanded Lee as he saw the panting girl land on the floor in front of him.

Hotaru threw her arms in the air after checking her watch, showing her exasperation at his tyrannical behavior. She was only late by a couple seconds!

"Go!" shouted Lee as he continued swinging his num-chucks around him. As soon as the girl disappeared he stopped, smiling to himself as he said, "She really is just like you, Tenten. The only difference is that her attitude is silent and much easier to deal with."

As if on cue, a branch hurtled towards Lee, forcing him to jump aside. In the corner of his eye, he saw Hotaru, brown braids flying as she kept on running, place a hand in front of her smirking mouth, as if to say 'Oops, sorry!' in the sarcastic manner only someone raised by _them_ could replicate without looking idiotic.

"Correct that, she _is_ you." Lee said before returning to his num-chucks.


	9. Caring Nurses, Spinal Cords and Training

Out of all the genins he had ever had contact with, Neji was the only one that didn't end up in the hospital after the Chunnin exam preliminaries. And consequently, he was out of training partners and teammates. His uncle, Hiashi, was out of the question.

So, the young prodigy was bored.

Quickly running out of options, he decided to go visit his teammates. Of course he wasn't allowed to go anywhere near where Hinata's room was, but hopefully one of them was a fair distance away.

Arriving at the hospital he supposed the shinobi had been sent to, he realized that the chances of actually being allowed to visit anyone were slim. This was probably the smallest hospital in the city! Silently raging against his family, the prodigy mused about the crappy fate he had been given.

Amusing himself by cursing everyone in existence, an old hobby of his, he walked over to the visitor's counter and waited for the receptionist to notice him.

"May I help you?" the lady asked, finally placing her pen down and looking up at him. "Who are you visiting?"

"Rock Lee, Tenten." He answered as simply as possible.

"Ah… would you be Hyuuga Neji then?" the woman asked, shuffling through a pile of paper while waiting for his response.

"Hn." Was all he responded, it was all he generally ever said.

"I supposed that's a yes. Well first of all I would like to say it's a pleasure to meet the Hyuuga prodigy and I love everything about you…" the woman started, making the Hyuuga curse his decision to come here and his family's naturally good looks. And let's not forget fate, he cursed that too… a lot.

"Point?" he reminded her, forcing her out of her dreamlike state.

"Ah yes... sadly, and due to the fact that the Hyuugas are paranoid bastards, unlike you of course, you are unable to go visit Rock Lee. Which is a shame really, because you should be able to do anything you want. You are the most powerful Hyuuga, after all…" she continued on rambling. By then Neji had already reached the main staircase, using his byakugan to check where Tenten's room was.

Counting the doors, Neji muttered to himself, "Second floor… fifth, sixth, seventh door to the right." Slowly trudging to the afore mentioned room, He passed a sweeping glance of his Byakugan to see how Lee was doing. As soon as he spotted Lee, the person in question waved blindly at him through the god knows how many walls.

The doctor who was currently checking up on Lee looked at him like he was deranged. Well, more deranged than normal.

He stopped in front of a plain plastic door. Behind it he could hear a grand commotion in the works. Knocking three times on the door, he listened as he waited to be let in.

"-n't make me tell the Hokage to remove you from the kunoichi list." Yelled someone who obviously had lost all patience.

"You actually think that that would stop me from training?" responded a more familiar voice.

"Ano? There's a visitor. Should I let him or her in?" asked a quiet female voice, probably an intern or volunteer terrified by the little spat happening next to her. But that was to be expected, Tenten could get VERY scary when she was provoked.

"Yeah, sure. And also tell him… no, he's probably already figured that out. I don't think that evesdropping is above him. Just let him in." Responded Tenten before turning back to her previous conversation. "Neji needs to train for the Chunnin finals, I can't let him down! It is necessary for me to be allowed to train!"

"He must have other people with whom he can train, you aren't the only one." The stern voice reprimanded. With that said, Neji was let into the room. It looked normal enough, like a regular hospital room for the longer term patients. There was even a stuffed panda bear place on the windowsill as well as a couple of flowers, probably gifts from previous visitors.

"Oh, but that is where you are wrong. Lee is also in the hospital, and Gai-sensei is focusing all his efforts on healing his favorite pupil. The entire of the Hyuuga clan currently hates him because of that little stunt he pulled off with Hinata, by the way, Neji, that was really, really stupid of you… So as you can see, I'm his only option." She said, waving half-heartedly at Neji as he stepped in the room. He muttered his monosyllabic trademark at the critique.

"Tell her the she can't train! Please! That girl don't understand reason!" the stern voice said, now accompanied by a woman raising her arms with an air of defeat.

"I can soo train! I feel normal, so I should be able to train normally too!" Tenten exclaimed quickly, making sure that he took her side.

"See? She wants to hurt herself again! Even if she feels normal, she cannot train. The blow she received by landing on Temari's fan chipped a part of the bone encasing her spinal cord. Even with the enhanced healing, the most she can do right now is probably walk around. And even then, we haven't let her do that yet. All those contortions she does would probably damage the cord itself. And any damage to the cord is permanent, even jutsus can't heal that!" the woman cried out, showing elaborately doodled medical charts and X-rays.

Without even having said a word, Neji stood there, smirking to himself at their little battle. Of course Tenten would win, when she wants something, people normally end up by giving it to her. Especially if it involved training…

With a simple upward movement of the head, he shattered the woman's hopes and dreams. Tenten, reveling in her triumph over the annoying nurse –who had been plaguing her about that for the past three days, ever since she woke up – tore the sheets off the aluminum bed and stood in front of her accomplice.

"I'm up, what now?" she asked, thanks echoing in her words. "Do I get to train now?"

"Absolutely not! You need to try walking first, and then running! The whole process could take up to weeks, and I don't plan on risking your-" the nurse beg ranting, but was unceremoniously cut off by Neji.

"Tomorrow. Six AM. Ground 7." He said before turning around, perfect hair whipping behind him. With a satisfied smirk he marched down the hallway leaving the outraged cries for his teammate to deal with.

Just because he is a naturally sadistic person, he looked back towards the room, byakugan activated, to observe his handiwork. The menacing glare he received attested to the fact that someone was likely to be beaten down to a pulp in training tomorrow.

Sobering his maniacal expression, he exited the hospital promising himself that he would survive the deluge. Of weaponry, that is, weaponry ready to make him pay for leaving Tenten alone with the all too caring nurse.

Definetly


	10. Meadow Safforn

"LEE! We're playing 'make Neji look bad' again!" Tenten screamed out to her green-clad teammate as the other opened an eye.

"COMING!" came the response as Lee finished his pushups and ran towards the rest of his team.

Sighing from his seat in the middle of the open field surrounded by trees, Neji spoke up, "Tenten, this is not a game."

"Maybe not to you, but for us, this is child's play. Now shut up and close your eyes." Tenten said with a superior smirk. Reluctantly he complied, but not before he shot her an it's-not-my-fault-my-family's-entire-technique-depends-on-eyesight glare. Not to be provoked by the childish actions of the genius, she ignored him and looked over to her other teammate that was running towards them at a break-neck pace.

"Ready?" Lee asked as he stopped in front of them.

Tenten simply nodded and turned to Neji, ruffling his hair as she said, "Okay, try to figure out where we are. And don't fall asleep again." He swiped her hand away, not quite sure whether to be embarrassed by her words, or by the fact that he had not sensed her hand coming towards him and jumped a little at the contact. After all, sensing other's presence, without using his eyes, was the whole point of this exercise.

With a sudden breeze he realized that the other two had disappeared into the field, probably laughing as they snuck up in plain sight.

For a good half hour he sat in the middle of the field, occasionally feeling a faint presence around him, but never enough to pinpoint who or if it really was one of them. But between those few and far apart moments, he meditated a little, and spent a good ten minutes cursing the sun that was steadily frying away his pale skin.

Suddenly he heard muffled laughing coming from behind him, and soon it's echo sounded up in front. Focusing on the first sound, he realized that someone was standing a few feet behind him. Focusing on the chakra that was now visible to him, he saw that the figure had on of its arm extended outwards and two fingers stood upright from it's fist.

_BUNNY EARS!?!_ Thought Neji, indignant. In one swift motion he stood up and grabbed the wrist of the figure, which was not really that hard since she was in the middle of a laughing fit.

"Tenten, you are going to asphyxiate yourself if you don't stop laughing." He stated, a deadpan expression on his face to hide his embarrassment. He really wasn't too good at his 'sensing' thing.

"H-heheh… I-it would so be worth it!" she responded, having trouble breathing in. "Okay, go sit again, you still need a lot of work." She ordered as she walked off into the tree line, almost bursting out laughing again as she caught sight of Lee recovering from his own laughing fit. God she loved making Neji look bad, hence the name of the most awesome and fun game they had come up with in ages. They only really considered it training to get Neji to participate.

And yet again, the world lapsed into a monotonous mix of slight breezes and burning sunlight. Focusing on just about everything around him to steel himself against falling asleep, Neji felt them come up to him once or twice, and heard a stray twig crack.

Then a large amount of twigs and small branches -that had done nothing to deserve this kind of treatment- were snapped in half. The loud noise woke Neji, who had fallen into a semi-conscious state again, and Lee landed behind him.

"I don't think that was supposed to happen." Lee said as Neji sent him a no-duh! glare. And with that thrilling conversation completed, they ran over to the source of the sound.

What they found was not at all what they had expected. But then again, they had not been told that their teammate would pass out mid-jump and crash-land along with a good half of the surrounding tree's branches.

Lee was on the edge of hysteria, coming up with insane scenarios that could have led to this conclusion, but it was highly unlikely that Tenten had been tackled by rabid un-youthful wolverines and had been so tired after fighting them that she fell asleep.

Instead of wasting his precious brain cells listening to Lee's monologue, Neji removed the foliage that had wanted to crush her. Activating his byakugan, he brushed his fingers along her jugular artery.

"What's wrong?" asked Lee, hesitantly looking towards the form Neji was crouching next to. "She isn't…"

"No, but her heart beats are becoming slower as we speak, and I can't stop that. She needs professional care." Neji said, deactivating his byakugan and standing up. Immediately Lee bent down and picked up the unconscious body and ran off into the direction of Konoha, closely followed by Neji.

……

As they arrived into the hospital, they were quickly ushered into the shionbi wing, their headbands granting them immediate access.

Once Tenten had been placed in her room, the two males were forced to wait outside. Lee was nervous and confused, looking over to the door every twenty or so seconds. Neji, on the other hand, was busy filling out the patient form, his mind reciting the medical information that Gai-sensei had the entire team memorize.

A small and frail looking intern stepped up to them holding a folder. Opening it, she took a deep breath and addressed them, "Is this the person you brought in; Tenten, age 19, born May 9th…?"

"Yes, that is her." Lee answered as Neji passed him the form to sign. "Do you know what's wrong with her?"

"I have not been told yet, but you will be told as soon as they figure it out." The intern recited in a monotonous tone as she took the form and the folder and walked into the treatment room.

No one came out for an hour, and the two boys were caught between boredom and nervousness. Then finally the intern came back out, followed by a doctor who looked puzzled.

Lee jumped up as questions streamed out of his mouth, "Is she okay? What's wrong with her?"

"She is now stable, but for the sake of precaution it is necessary for her to stay a night or two. In any case she is still unconscious." The doctor proclaimed, making the boys relax visibly. "The thing is… she had an incredibly high amount of colchicine, a toxic compound found in meadow saffron, in her system. Is there any way she could have been poisoned?"

To the average person's eye, Neji had not reacted in any way to the declaration of the doctor, but the highly trained eye of his teammate noticed the slight jump and the sudden opening of his eyes. With that information in the back of his mind, Lee took up the responsibility to answer the question, "Her last mission was three days ago, but she is normally a very careful person."

With that the doctor left, pondering away at what Lee had said and trying to calculate how much time would have been necessary to induce the effects he had just treated. On the other hand, the two boys went into the room to see their teammate and to really assure themselves that she was okay… well as much as she could be while in a hospital.

Finally they left the hospital, walking down the well-trodden path to their current training field. When they reached their destination their training began, a spar, because it was well known that the only way to make the prodigy talk was to beat it out of him.

"What do you know that I don't" Lee asked as he sent a volley of kicks and punches towards his target.

"Many, many things, why do you ask?" Neji retorted with the comical tone he only used around his teammates, all the while he blocked every single attack.

"You seemed nervous when the doctor talked about the stuff that was in Tenten's system. Why?" Lee said as he threw himself back and landed on a tree branch.

"Saffron is an emmenagogue." Neji responded simply, being as vague as he possibly could.

"Which is?" Lee asked as her yet again hurled himself at Neji and tried to land a kick.

Blocking as he was talking, Neji cringed and said three simple words that would doom him for life, "Herbal birth control."

Lee just stood there as the words registered in his brain, as well as the implications that went along with them. He looked over at his teammate who has hanging his head, partially in shame, partially because he was avoiding Lee's gaze.

Then Lee exploded.

"You two did what?!?" he shouted as a flock of terrified birds flew away screeching in fear. Oh how Neji wished he could run away with them right now. "Do you have any idea how stupid that was!? Neither of you can deal with that kind of thing, much less the rumors that will come out of this! Did you even think about any of this, or are you just a bunch of feral hormones!?" Lee ranted as he sent a frustrated punch towards Neji.

Neji didn't even bother blocking the punch, deciding that he definitely deserved that one. The punch connected and his shoulder was sent smashing into the tree right behind him.

"I know it was dumb… I just didn't care when it happened." He said, knocking the back of his head against the tree as well. "It was stupid… The mission was simple, but the target was not falling for her act. She stepped up her game and it all spiraled out of control from there." Neji murmured to himself, looking up at the canopy of leaves as if it would give him and answer.

"And now she's in the hospital, where people will eventually find out why she took the stuff." Lee said, his voice calmed by Neji's unexpected reaction. Neither spoke for a couple minutes; contemplating the various fatal scenarios tat could come out of this.

Suddenly Neji asked to no one in particular, "Why did she have to take the one that could kill?"

"She was scared. Neither of you would survive her being pregnant, so she wanted the most powerful stuff. The one that she could be sure of the results." Guessed Lee as the two lapsed into silence again. Neither knew what to do with the situation, only that the Hyuuga clan would not tolerate such an involvement, and that meant that the curse seal would get dragged into the mess. Activated, no less.

"She was raped." Neji said after a couple more minutes of silence, finally looking away from the sky. Lee immediately looked at him, asking himself what the hell Neji was thinking. "She was raped during the mission. It would have been a blow to her reputation and pride, so she hid t from everyone. But she wanted to make sure that no traces of it would come out. So she took the saffron, the most potent drug she knew of, but miscalculated. The doctors know the rest already."

Finally Lee got it and nodded to acknowledge that their new story was plausible, even believable. Curious he asked, "How much of that wonderful story is truth?"

"I would never touch her if she didn't ask for it." Neji said as he walked off into the vast expanse of trees, either to sulk or to implant the new story. _Probably the former_, Lee thought as he left as well to run a relaxing hundred laps around in the forest.


	11. Akane pt 1

Normally when someone walks down a hospital hallway, he or she expects to see solemn visitors coming to see the patients and nurses quietly shuffling in and out of the cheap plastic doors. But since abnormality trailed behind him like a curse that was not what he saw. Far from that…

Instead nurses were running down the hallway in their girly, high-heeled shoes, making everybody wonder how they managed to stay upright. Their mad race seemed to end where the loud shattering of something, probably insanely expensive, began.

And since he was always attracted to breaking objects, whether they are bones, skin, or vials, he followed the scrambling nurses at a more leisurely pace.

As he came closer to the source of the disruption, a shocking realization came across him. The voice shouting curses at the nurses had not only stolen those insults from him, but had shouted them at him during many a spar. Taking the realization in stride, he walked his way through the mess of nurses, his eyes and clothing granting him access to the scene.

One at the doorway of the room the commotion had erupted from; all his suspicions had been confirmed. In front of him stood Tenten, barricading the door while a stressed out doctor tried to escape. Behind him a nurse, equally as stressed, was busy avoiding eye contact, glancing over at the inert body of an old woman, and refolding for the umpteenth time the hem of her uniform.

And in came Neji, calmly intruding into the scene and forcing all to look over at him.

"What are you doing here?" Spit out an angry Tenten, ready to whip out her weapons if need be. Considering the circumstance, he was surprised she hadn't already impaled someone.

"Sit." Was his response, explaining absolutely nothing, yet again.

"No I will n-" she said, but she never got to finish that sentence.

"Akane sit down." Neji interrupted with a sense of finality that left no room fot arguments. Turning his back to Tenten as she slammed down onto the nearest chair, pouting and muttering at the injustice, he bade the doctor to tell his tale.

"I was called up to check on a patient," he began, a nervous sweat running down his face as his eyes darted between Neji and Tenten. "You see, I came up here and Yoko was settling the patient down on the bed. I asked to see the patient's information; it's normal procedure to check if the patient is allergic to a certain drug and other such things. I was told she had no such information. I thought that was curious, since all children are given such a sheet at birth. So I asked again, and the young lady here yelled at me! And then-" the man rambled on, getting more and more nervous as he spoke. Eventually he started kneading his hands and shoved them in his pockets to try and stop.

"He refused to look at her!" Tenten cried out, making everyone look at her, particularly Neji who sent a glare over in her direction before turning back to the man. He was fidgeting more than ever.

"She didn't have any papers, I-I couldn't work without knowing what she could react negatively to!" the man managed to stutter.

"When you see someone dying on the street, do you ask for his papers too? He refused to look at her because she's not registered!" Tenten spit out, the venom obvious in her voice. This time, everybody stared at the man who was squirming as if the glares were eating him alive. Not being registered was synonymous with being an illegal immigrant. And since all illegals were extremely poor, and by consequence forced to live in the filthy neighborhoods of Konohakagure, they were considered the scum that tainted the village's reputation.

"She h-had nothing to p-pay with. G-good will won't feed m-my family." The man said feebly, knowing that his life as a reputable doctor was now over. Over because of _her_. Now he would be marked as a racist for life because of _her_.

Hey, making enemies is just part of a shinobi's job.

Before the situation could turn any worse, another doctor walked in and checked if the old woman lying clumsily on the hospital bed was still alive. Since she was, he busied himself by running the regular tests to see what was wrong.

"What happened to her?" he asked as the previous doctor shuffled away, followed by the rest of the crowd. The commotion was over, they had moved on.

"We were walking to the market and she started coughing. She's been sick for a while, coughing a little here and there, but never as much as then. After a couple minutes she still hadn't stopped and she looked like she had trouble breathing. And then she passed out." Tenten responded calmly, adding a worried "Will she be okay?"

"Yes I believe she will be fine. It seems she just has a common cold, but because of her age and… condition it has become more virulent than it should." The doctor said, scribbling messily across his notepad. "But Doctor Aomori was right about one thing; good will will not feed my family either. Can you pay the balance?"

"It depends how much the balance is." Tenten answered back, laying the old woman's hand on the pristine sheets.

"23, 890 yen." The doctor stated as Tenten's jaw dropped. That's just about what she made in a month if she was lucky! But before she could answer the amount of money in crisp new bills passed into the doctor's hands. The stunned Tenten only managed to look appreciatively into the white eyes of the bills' previous owner.

"She will only need to stay here a couple days, just as long as it takes for the virus to take its course and for her to recover. Please fill this form out so that we may know whom to contact when she is ready to leave." The man said handing over a clipboard with a printed sheet and a pen attached to it.

Silently Tenten filled out the form, entering her old apartment's address instead of the place where she actually lived. It's not like it had an address anyways. Plus the apartment now belonged to the gang's children and they were trained to know how to respond if someone came asking for her.

When she was done, she left the hospital, aware of the half dozen stares directed at her. She turned left to return home and tell everyone what had happened instead of the planned trip to the market.

"What do you want?" she asked, not even turning around to check who was trailing her. She knew it was him, for only he would know to modify his features with a genjustu after entering the building where her apartment had been.

"Who was she?" he asked, now level with Tenten instead of a dozen steps behind.

"You don't remember Kaa-san? She was there when you were introduced." Tenten stated, surprised that he hadn't known.

"I was introduced to the gang, the gang wasn't introduced to me." He stated simply, his lips curved into a smirk that could be considered a smile.

"Psh. Technicalities." She said waving the comment off, feeling Neji's contagious happiness. "Why did you pay anyways?" she asked, unable to keep the question from coming out any longer.

"Because I know you don't have that kind of money and that you wouldn't make a scene unless that person was very important to you." He declared as if he was stating that the sky was blue. Which it wasn't at the moment, because a storm was coming, but that's not the point.

"I didn't make that big of a scene, did I?" she asked cautiously, hoping that it had been just a minor thing.

"That was probably the biggest thing that happened in the past weeks or so. I don't think it will be forgotten very quickly." He said, amused as Tenten slumped at his words. "Akane wasn't being very cooperative."

With an audible groan Tenten muttered a few of her favorite insults at her twin personality. She had only regained control as the balance was announced, probably since Akane had been satisfied with the amount of chaos she had created. "Did I make any enemies?" she asked as the couple stepped into a small restaurant bordered by a green roof holding up a battered red sign.

"The doctor you accused of being racist wasn't too happy about it. Other than that, no." Neji answered as they nodded a greeting to the small kitchen's staff and walked into the second supply closet bordering the fridges. Instead of ending up in a tiny cramped closet, they walked down the packed mud hallway that stemmed into the large subterranean grounds the gang inhabited.

Taking two lefts and a right, a path they had both memorized by now, they found a beaten wooden door covered in graffiti. Behind it lay the never-ending mess of weaponry and clothing that was Tenten's room.

"You haven't even tried to keep it clean." Neji stated as he looked on at the horror that was a pile of clothes in an urgent need of laundering. Compared to his pristine and elegant room this place was a pigsty. And somehow it didn't bother him as much as it should.

"I never have, why start now?" Tenten said as she threw her weapon pouch and scrolls somewhere in the mass of pointy objects.

"How do you eve find anything in this… this place?" Neji asked, like their ritual required. In truth, if the room were clean, he would know something was wrong. Plus it was fun to fake outrage at the clutter she called a home.

"I manage." She responded as Neji brought his face closer to hers.

"EW! Get a room!" came a cry from behind them as three figures appeared in the room.

"This is _my_ room you idiot, _you're_ the ones who walked in!" Tenten cried out as she turned to face the intruders. The little boy who had said the previous comment immediately looked at his feet, realizing how truly dumb it had been.

"We heard that you came back without Obaba. What happened?" the oldest boy asked as the other two looked up at the adults.

"She's at the hospital right now, but she'll be back in a couple days. Don't worry. And we don't have to pay the bill either, Neji already paid it." Tenten said, wishing for the brats to disappear so she could go back to her previous activity. "Go away now."

"Can't you thank him with your pants on?" muttered the boy previously termed idiot.

Not wishing that Tenten's impeding fury detonate on the boys, Neji took control of the situation. Grabbing her at the waist and pulling her towards him, disarming her in the process, he said, in all seriousness, to the boys, "She's had a long day. So if you don't want to end up with a lot more holes that you ever wished for, I suggest you scram."

And so they did. In an instant they were gone, the door shutting behind them. But instead of becoming the parasite he really didn't mind having attached to his lips, she rested her head against his shoulder, exhausted. The mention of a long day had made her realize just how much energy the events had sapped away from her. Mumbling something completely incoherent to the average human she closed her eyes and fell asleep.

"Fine, I'll got tell them what happened." Neji muttered in response and lay her down on her bed, after having cleared off all the weapons he could reach. Pulling a bright red duvet from under a pile of gleaming steel, and knocking all of it onto the many piles on the floor, he placed it over her sleeping body and left the room.

……

Somewhere in the far reaches of the rows of file cabinets a furious doctor thumbed though a certain kunoichi's papers. Smiling as he read over her strange behaviors and laughing silently to himself he mumbled something about revenge, disorders and therapy.

But what can a simple doctor really do to a fighter?

Apparently a lot.


	12. AUTHOR'S NOTE

I've started a story in which the reviews decide what happens. It's basically going to be a series of one-shots (related or not depending on the stuff I get). To contribute to it, review my story "The Search for Meaning"

Thank you and I hope you help!!!


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